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Rating: For many metal lovers, "Dead end kings", the new release from the Swedes Katatonia, was the album of 2012, or at least one of the most anticipated, one of those you wait for, counting the days until the official release. Also because we are not talking about newcomers, but rather a crucial entity for the entire slice of the darker metal, the kind that is somehow encoded in the subgenres of gothic, doom, depressive, dark. Expectations were further "magnified" by Renkse and company's previous work, that "Night is the new day" welcomed in a somewhat lukewarm manner by a large part of the critics. The fears were linked to the possibility (not so remote), that the Stockholm combo could propose, with slightly modified canons, what had been offered in NITND: namely, a more accessible and "polished" gothic, less intricate and oppressive compared to the psychological complexity of a masterpiece like "The great cold distance".
A few days ago, on August 27, "Dead end kings" was published, the ninth chapter of a discography destined to grow. Impressions, sensations, judgments: by now, after a few listens, perhaps we can throw out some words on the content and its validity.
Katatonia, perhaps for the first time, create an album that doesn't break with its predecessor, but rather retraces its sound and atmosphere, with small variations on the theme. That's why DEK results in being less aggressive than some previous works: referring to the less sustained rhythms of "Night is the new day", it comes across as a reflective gothic album like the band had never produced. The only track that "hits" the accelerator is "Buildings", while for the rest the blows of the two guitars of Anders Nystrom and the new entry Per Eriksson remain decidedly in the background. That's why "Dead end kings" turns out to be, all in all, the musically flattest and "weakest" CD from the Swedes, who demonstrate their progressive departure from the heaviness of the gothic/doom of their beginnings, also in the massive use of Frank Default's keyboards. Already the first tracks of the album clarify this to us, with Renkse's voice dominating in songs like "The parting" and "The one you are looking for is not here", while the soundscape proves to be immediately excessively laconic, subdued. It is perhaps precisely this "lack" that is the major flaw of the CD, which lacks the emotionality that had always distinguished their music-making.
Album to discard? Fortunately not, given the undeniable and crystal-clear class of the band, capable of also turning out very successful and engaging songs in their aura of gothic depression. "Hypnone" is one of these, where the blend of keyboards/voice works well, but what convinces is the totality of the performers: the same can be said for "Ambitions" and especially for "Lethean", in the writer's opinion the only true highlight of the record. A track that for incisiveness and final result could very well have appeared in "The great cold distance".
At the end of this journey, which it must be said, retains the characteristics of darkness and pessimism that Katatonia has well encoded in their past works, one is left with a sufficient gothic rock CD. An adjective that is not in the Scandinavian's chords, accustomed to delighting their fans with more intense and successful works than this "Dead end kings". The impression given by bands like Paradise Lost and Saint Vitus, that is important names in the world metal scene, is the same for Katatonia. Which one? Once established, perhaps it's better to limit oneself to the "homework"...
1. "The Parting" (4:52)
2. "The One You Are Looking For Is Not Here" (3:53)
3. "Hypnone" (4:07)
4. "The Racing Heart" (4:05)
5. "Buildings" (3:28)
6. "Leech" (4:23)
7. "Ambitions" (5:07)
8. "Undo You" (4:56)
9. "Lethean" (4:39)
10. "First Prayer" (4:28)
11. "Dead Letters" (4:29)
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Forsaker (04:04)
Rage from a distant
The name unfamiliar
Spikes reach the heart
Time set for rewind
The dark will rise
Abandon your freedom
Give up the right to find your true self
Forsake your own reasons
Forsaker, forsaker
Hand of a leader
Bleached by snowfall
Opposition is drugged
The great end is sweeping in
The dark will rise
Abandon your freedom
Give up the right to find your true self
Forsake your own reasons
Forsaker, forsaker, forsaker
02 The Longest Year (04:37)
In the nights of old I always wished
In the longest year that had me down
And I would freeze if you ever asked me
That was my way
Confront the guilt and try to overcome
Do not go away, I'm not there yet
Confront the guilt and try to overcome
Do not go away, I'm not there yet
I can see fire when I fall behind
When I give up my thoughts redefined
How cold is the flame of our uncompromising future?
How cold is the sun?
The city lights fading still
The coming sky so white
And I'm the dark of this our new day
This is my way
Find the one
This weight will hold me down
How cold is the sun?
I can see fire when I fall behind
When I give up my thoughts redefined
How cold is the flame of our uncompromising future?
How cold is the sun?
03 Idle Blood (04:21)
You there, the bringer of my despair
You are stagnation of hope and will
Oh, you personify loss and remorse
And you hide until my fear reappear
The love for life once bright
A burning fuse the only flame I have
Fate's spiral down this curve
The seed's growing my misery
These wounds kill time
My struggle sublime
Idle the blood, black state of mind
All dreams left behind
You claim to be my long, absent friend
You are the cancer that just moved in
You come with the dark night of the soul
But I'm turning my back on you, you know I do
The love for life once bright
A burning fuse, the only flame I have
Fate's spiral down this curve
The seed's growing my misery
These wounds kill time
My struggle sublime
Idle the blood, black state of mind
All dreams left behind
Idle the blood
The black state of mind
All my dreams left behind
Idle the blood
Ooh, the black state of mind
All my dreams left behind
04 Onward Into Battle (03:49)
In the still eclipse
Every light is a heartbeat
In the spring where I watch
The sudden change
I find this so hard
Onward into battle
Time is growing so dark around me
I, shallow one, burn us out
Day by idle day
Days at the sea
My words are incomplete
In the blind spot where I saw you
On the fourth at night
I find this so hard
Onward into battle
Time is growing so dark around me
I, shallow one, burn us out
Day by idle day
05 Liberation (04:16)
Sold are the eyes I have
And cold is the wait for nothing
In dark I write my name in a long line
How is it possible for you to try?
It's coming true
I've changed my name but I will pass it on to you
Journey, no present thoughts
Coming day, darkest will
It's coming true
I've changed my name but I will pass it on to you
Our thoughts entwine
You speak and I hear other words behind
I wave from the edge of the pier
And fade into dreams of sleepers
Marked, I have had this stain for a long time
We called on the bird long before
It's coming true
I've changed my name but I will pass it on to you
Our thoughts entwine
You speak and I hear other words behind
06 The Promise of Deceit (04:15)
Evening
Coming through the crowd
I hold my head high
Straining
Out here
Dissonance surrounds
I hold my head high
I see the wings behind your back
Burned all the maps to reach you
Watching distant lands
I saw danger
Then I felt the pressure
Downfall
This is our time
The setting sun over
All I ever had
So when did you come to think
That you would tell me that I have no one?
When do you think that you
Will give back the things that you owe me?
Burned all the maps to reach you
Watching distant lands
I saw danger, then I felt the pressure
(weak)
The setting sun over
All I ever had
So when did you come to think
That you would tell me that I have no one?
When do you think that you
Will give back the things that you owe me?
So when did you come to think
That you would tell me that I have no one?
When do you think that you
Will give back the things that you owe me?
07 Nephilim (04:25)
Loving mother
He has come
To take your son
Listen how he strides the earth
When only animals are awake
When the shattering of ideals begin
God of ruin will come to you
Loving mother
He has come
To take your son
Loving mother
He has come
To take your son
Fallen from the faded sky
Nephilim comes, foul air
And when morals will decline
God of ruin will come to you
Loving mother
He has come
To take your son
Loving mother
He has come
To take your son
08 New Night (04:25)
Pledge
I've forgotten this time
I am so uncertain
That my heart will go on
Oh, my beloved one
If you were here you'd find
That I'm not feeling well
That I will have to go on
Though summer unwinds now
I have no reason to follow
I have only you
My sun is pale
My heart's old
Why so quiet this new night
There's a white cloud
Under my eyelid
Oh, my beloved one
There is swirling dark
Shrouding my freedom
Cold is the undertow
Hold
My hand
I'm in the waiting line
Mute I stand, barren ground
Though summer unwinds now
I have no reason to follow
I have only you
My sun is pale
My heart's old
09 Inheritance (04:28)
Our inconvenient burden
It could be lifted off of us
If we gave up to finally let go of the free
Will that we were given
Our graves above the timberline
Our names chalked
Treasure or wealth no longer found
The unforgiving void
The forge in which our values burn
The resting leech our thinning minds
In my abstinence I turn to nothing
Our graves above the timberline
Our names chalked
Treasure or wealth no longer found
Let them inherit this fire now
Lest they will forget that we were ever here
Let them inherit this fire now
Lest they will forget that we were ever here
12 Departer (05:22)
The blinding white so far behind I am
And running over idle ground
This evening I kept my word, did you?
I'm turning around wait for your sound
So far according to who
Departer
The journey of our lives
I'm so slow compared to you
Departer
It's the month of July
Brother in your eyes I was the stronger
So how am I to cover you now
Without shadowing your path
This time I watch from the sidelines
Your ghost in the limelight
Face your fears and pierce the night
I'm so close if only you knew
Defender
The story of our lives
I'm so rash compared to you
Surrender it's the path of our lives
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Other reviews
By Raiden7.0
"The Longest Year" has one of the most moving choruses ever conceived by the band!
"The Promise Of Deceit" and "Nephilim" dig into your heart, making you forget previous regrets.
By Hell
This album is, to put it bluntly, extremely boring, a work that largely offers a string of tracks that are neither fish nor fowl and have neither head nor tail.
Everything drags on without much dynamism between inconsistent/non-existent 'heavy' passages and lengthy more relaxed and autumnal moments that... end up boring holes within tracks.
By ElectricOne
Once you get in sync and slow down your heartbeat to better synchronize with the mood of the album, a new facet of Katatonia’s multifaceted personality opens up: and it is truly splendidly dramatic and touching.
Ultimately, a controversial but ultimately pleasant album, after all the above-mentioned listening preparation preambles, which does not hit the big target but opens new scenarios for the Swedish combo.
By Taurus
"Night is the new day" is a softer record compared to the previous one, painting desolate and decadent environments veiled by melancholy and bewilderment.
Their music manages to be very evocative when listened to in the right conditions, revealing new details with each listen.
